Ketchum You Betcha!
by Talent Scout
Summary: None


Ketchum? You Betcha  
  
by: Scott K. Jamison   
  
Pokemon and its related characters are the property of Nintendo   
and no infringement is intended. This story may be posted on free   
sites, including Fictionmania.  
  
Ketchum? You Betcha!  
By Scott K. Jamison  
  
Marcus was too old to go trick or treating, or so he'd been told,   
but he was still young enough to be enamored of the idea of loads   
of free candy. That's why he was lurking by the sidewalk in the   
dark part of the block near the Van Owen place.  
  
It was the farthest point from any streetlight, and the   
overhanging trees cast deep shadows in which anything could lurk.   
When Marcus had been a little younger, he'd always walked as fast   
as he could past the Van Owens'. But he was sixteen now, and he   
knew better than to be scared of a few shadows.  
  
Besides, tonight, he would be the scary one. Marcus was wearing a   
black sweatshirt, black pants, black trainers, and a black ski   
mask. If, somehow, he got caught, he'd just claim to be on his   
way to one of the lame-ass "safe parties" dressed as a terrorist.   
It had worked last year, netting him three grocery bags full of   
candy extorted from snot-nosed little wimps.  
  
Ah, here waddled one now. Awful short one, too. But the tall   
pointy hat with a wide brim was unmistakable in outline. Some   
kid's mother had dressed her little darling up as a witch. Almost   
here--  
  
Marcus jumped out of the shadows. "Booga booga!"  
  
The little witch jumped a bit, her decorated bag rattling, but   
she held on to it. "Hey! You scared me!" she said in a fairly   
credible croak.  
  
"Thass right, little girl, and unless you give me your candy,   
I'ma gonna hurt you bad." Marcus had watched a gangbanger movie   
last week, and tried to imitate the dialect.  
  
"You mustn't have my candy!" squealed the witch, holding the bag   
close to her pudgy body.  
  
Now that he was looking at her closer, Marcus could see that the   
girl's costume might have been cliche, but the makeup was first-  
rate. Her face was green and scaly, with an oversized nose that   
had a hairy wart right on the tip. As she gasped, he could see   
crooked yellow teeth with huge gaps between them.  
  
"Tough break. You can get more. Gimmee."  
  
Marcus snatched the bag from her hands--the decorations looked   
like the squiggles in the astrology column his mother liked to   
read. She even had the green makeup on her hands, with claw-like   
fingernails.  
  
"No--no fair! Y-you'll be sorry!" She was on the edge of tears.  
  
"Oh, go away. An' don't go telling anyone, or I'll sneak into   
your house tonight, and cut out your tattling little tongue!"   
Marcus pushed her none too gently with his foot.  
  
"Bklu, youte mkbno!" The little girl made some weird gesture with   
her hand, then slunk off, crying.  
  
"Weird-ass little girl," Marcus muttered as he slipped back into   
the shadows.  
  
The next half-hour passed slowly. A few kids came by, but all of   
them were accompanied by parents or an older sibling. Marcus   
wasn't about to challenge the school's wrestling champ, no sir.  
  
To pass the time, Marcus reached into his loot bag, and grabbed   
one of the candies. The wrapper crinkled a little bit, and it was   
soft in his hand, like taffy. The taste was kind of like caramel,   
but with a peppery tang, kind of like some Mexican candy the   
Perez family had given out three years ago.  
  
At last another lone figure approached. As it came closer, Marcus   
recognized it. Tommy, a little wuss he'd seen around, and   
bullied, before. His mother was one of those indulgent types, and   
gave him a lot of lunch money--that Marcus had taken more than   
once. This would be sweet.  
  
Tommy's mother had obviously gone all out this year. He was   
dressed as the lead kid from that cartoon, Marcus had seen it all   
over, oh yeah, Pokemon. And not in some crappy store-bought   
costume either. All the clothes were just right, complete down to   
the Nike-style swoosh on the baseball cap. And a plush Pikachu   
doll was Velcroed to his shoulder. The model with cheeks that   
actually lit up.  
  
Marcus felt a stab of jealousy. His mother had never made *him*   
that good of a costume, even when she'd been sober. Oh yeah, he'd   
enjoy this.  
  
"Booga booga!"   
  
Tommy took a step back, and looked real scared, but then his face   
hardened as though he were trying to appear brave.  
  
"Gimme your candy, kid, and that doll too!"  
  
The smaller boy struck a defiant stance. "No! You can't have my   
Pikachu! And if you're gonna do the Team Rocket thing, you should   
have a better costume! And a partner!"  
  
Does this kid really think he's some kind of cartoon hero? Marcus   
asked himself. "Life ain't like the cartoons, wussy-boy. Gimme   
the candy, or I hurt you." He cracked his knuckles to emphasize   
the point. Maybe he'd beat Tommy up even if the wimp did give him   
the candy.  
  
"You can't scare me! I challenge you to a Pokemon battle!" Tommy   
pointed at Marcus, whose eyes widened.   
  
The little punk actually thinks he's a hero! "Okay, loser, you   
asked for it." Marcus wound up for a punch.  
  
"Pikachu! Thundershock, now!"  
  
There was a bright flash, and a lot of pain. Marcus hadn't felt   
this way since he'd stuck his finger in a light socket on a dare.   
He twitched a few times, and then fell to the ground.  
  
"Ooohh..." Was that smoke he was smelling?  
  
Tommy looked down at Marcus; his eyes wide open in the pale   
light. "It worked? It worked! Yay, Pikachu!" He patted the   
stuffed monster. It glowed a little bit, and Tommy turned back to   
Marcus.  
  
"I won, so you gotta do what I say! Lessee... you're too mean to   
be Brock, so you gotta be Misty!"  
  
Marcus didn't quite follow what the kid was talking about, but he   
was feeling better now, and just needed a little more rest before   
beating the snot out of the punk. Then he felt a burning   
sensation in his gut and up his throat. It felt like that candy   
he'd eaten was trying to claw it way back out.  
  
Marcus croaked, "Whass going on?" His voice seemed awfully high-  
pitched. Then a crushing sensation started all over his body.  
  
Marcus could actually feel himself shrinking, his muscles and   
bones contracting in on themselves. He could actually hear his   
hip bones pop as they moved.  
  
He was able to pull himself to a sitting position, in time to see   
his sweatpants start to shrink, wriggling up his legs like a   
stop-motion snake, texture becoming denim as they changed into an   
extremely tight pair of denim shorts. Marcus almost screamed at   
the pinching they were causing his balls, but then the pain was   
gone, and so, he knew, was his manhood.  
  
Marcus' shirt was changing too, becoming yellowish, and thinner   
fabric as it cleared his midriff. He shivered as the chill of the   
night hit his exposed flesh. Red straps--suspenders--whipped up   
from the shorts, over his shoulders. And under the straps, his   
chest swelled slightly, with tiny breasts.  
  
His trainers shrank and turned red, fitting his new small feet.   
As a final indignity, his ski mask wriggled up over his face, and   
pulled Marcus' hair into an off-center ponytail.  
  
"No... this can't be happening, I can't be turning into a girl!"   
Marcus patted himself down, hoping that somehow this was a dream,   
or a nightmare he could wake up from.  
  
"What are you talking about, Misty? You've always been a girl.   
Here, take Togepi, and don't fall over again, okay?" Tommy was   
handing Marcus a pillow that had been decorated to look like an   
oversized egg.  
  
Marcie took the toy in her arms, as strange thoughts filled her   
head. Of course she'd always been a girl. How could she have   
imagined something as stupid as being an icky boy? Especially a   
mean one that took candy from little kids!  
  
She looked up at her friend Tommy. He was okay, for an icky boy.   
Even if he did take this Pokemon thing *way* too seriously. He   
was insisting on acting just like Ash, and calling her by the   
character name. Next year, Marcie would insist on doing Card   
Captors instead, because in that one, the girl was the hero.  
  
"C'mon, Misty! We got lotsa houses to go, and I gotta catch 'em   
all!"   
  
Still, there was something bothering her... hadn't there been   
another bag of candy? One with funny symbols on it?  
  
She looked back and saw the bag. It was being dragged into the   
shadows. By a green, scaly hand with long, claw-like fingernails.   
Marcie shuddered.  
  
"Hey, Ash! Wait up!" And the children ran into the night.  
  
FIN 


End file.
